Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Hoofcare & Lameness Journal editor Fran Jurga has returned to the office after a quick trip to Vienna, Austria to assist the Spanish Riding School there with media and hoofcare preparations for their upcoming USA tour in November.

The famous white Lipizzaner stallions may be in need of farrier assistance when they tour, since they are not bringing Herr Gerstner, their independent-contractor farrier, with them. They require highly techical Euro-style shoeing, which looks deceptively simple. All are shod with Dutch shoes with toe clips, front and hind; a few are barefoot behind.

This is the SRS's first USA tour in 15 years. Read more about the Lipizzaners and their feet in issue #79 of Hoofcare & Lameness Journal.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Perhaps due to popular demand, a special Open Forum Membership Meeting of the American Farriers Association has been scheduled for Friday, September 9, 2005 at 1 p.m. in Omaha, Nebraska.

The meeting was announced in a special press release received on June 21st at the Hoofcare & Lameness Journal office. The full press release will be posted on the Hoofcare & Lameness Journal web site, www.hoofcare.com

Details from the press release include:

All AFA members are welcome to attend....the next day, the AFA Board of Directors will be meeting for their 2005 Mid-Year meeting....recommendations from the Open Forum meeting on Friday can be brought to the Board meeting for their consideration.....AFA Vice President Bob Earle, CJF, has agreed to serve as the moderator for the meeting....using a “loose set” of Robert’s Rules of Order.

Hotel reservations may be made by calling the Omaha Hilton at 1-800-HILTONS or (402) 998-3400; the AFA discounted rate is $75 per night.

For more info, contact Bryan Quinsey at the AFA office: (859) 233-7411 or BQuinsey@AmericanFarriers.org.

Please do not call the Hoofcare & Lameness office about this event. We will share any info we receive by either this blog or the hoofcare.com web site.

Please read posts on this blog and at hoofcare.com for information on this spring's events related to the AFA's task force on farrier regulation/licensing in the United States.

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Hoofcare & Lameness is happy to share news that farrier and rodeo trick roping performer Brice Chapman of Lubbock, Texas has published a coloring book for children. The 28-page fun-filled book is almost as entertaining as watching Brice perform. It teaches children about caring for their horses and especially about hoofcare and horseshoes.

Brice is the look-alike, talk-alike, make-them-smile-alike son of famous farrier and heartbar shoe pioneer Burney Chapman, who died in 1999.

Brice Chapman never runs out of ideas to make people laugh and feel good.

When Brice isn't performing, he visits elementary schools and works with children, many of whom have already endorsed the coloring book with a high-pitched "Yippee!". Brice travels with two sidekicks, a Border collie named Sooner with a very high IQ, and a trickster Paint horse named Crossfire. I expect they will have their own TV show soon.

You will be able to order the new coloring book through Hoofcare & Lameness Journal and www.hoofcare.com on or about the 10th of June. The cost will be under $10...it's for the kids, after all!

I hope you will join me in helping children everywhere have some educational fun with horses, dogs, and friendly people. This coloring book is a big step in the right direction!

Friday, June 03, 2005

A University of Connecticut board of trustees committee is weighing options for establishing a veterinary college. They discussed a consultant's report yesterday indicating it would cost between 35- to 95-(M)-million dollars to build the school for 100 students. It could take up to 14-(M)-million-dollars a year to run it.

Currently the only vet college in New England is Tufts,with campuses in North Grafton and Boston, Massachusetts.

Did you know that Harvard University once had a thriving vet college side-by-side with the medical college? There still are a lot of animals at Harvard...used for research purposes...

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Connecticut farrier Geoff Goodson has resigned as president of the Southern New England Farriers Association, along with vice-president Roy Amaral and certification chair Michael Windsor. Sean McClure is now president, John Blombach is vice-president.

The three officers resigned at the June 1 association meeting, and Geoff called the Hoofcare & Lameness office on 2 June to let us know.

One of the many popular topics covered by Hoofcare & Lameness is the importance of the collateral ligaments of the coffin (distal interphalangeal, DIP) joint. Sue Dyson, lameness veterinarian of the Animal Health Trust in England, has written a super article on injuries to the ligaments and how to identify them.

We pair this with a compelling discussion of the movement of the coffin (distal phalanx, P3) bone by Jean-Marie Denoix. He termed the word "collateralmotion" to describe how the coffin bone moves slightly to the inside or outside, in a gliding motion, which most people do not usually consider when they consider the foot and what might cause lameness.

Denoix has a superb article in the January 2005 edition of Equine Veterinary Journal about how the weightbearing foot's coffin bone moves under the short pastern bone when a horse is turning. The article was dedicated to the memory of Jean-Louis Brochet, Denoix's sidekick and farrier who died tragically in Paris a few years ago of an unknown disease he contracted while working in Florida.
We are very grateful to have Drs Denoix and Dyson on our editorial board. Both of them will be speaking at the 3rd International Laminitis and Equine Diseases of the Foot Conference in Palm Beach, Florida November 4-6.

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